Hands on with the Alienware Alpha

For all its advantages, PC gaming has always been hampered by a supposed restriction to the desktop. As PC manufacturers have looked to create platforms that compete against consoles for dominance of the living room TV, they’ve had to address a few unique problems. First, the form factor of most PCs is typically inconsistent with what people expect from gaming and media devices in the living room. Second, the keyboard and mouse interface is also typically believed to be incompatible with a kicked-back-on-the-couch experience. The potential demand for a solution, when added to the open-development environment of the PC and the reach of Valve’s Steam service, have encouraged many developers to begin creating these devices, most of which under Valve's plan for Steam Machines.

We’ve had a hardware complete version of Alienware’s new Alpha in the office recently and have spent some time with it in advance of its release later this year. The system was originally positioned as the leader of the pack for Valve's Steam Box vision but, when Valve pushed its proprietary OS and controller to 2015, Alienware created its own Windows 8.1 version that will be released later this year. The base system, which retails for $549 and comes with a $100 Dell gift card, includes an i3 2.9GHz processor, 4GB of RAM, and a custom GPU that uses the GTX 860M with 2GB of GDDR5 video memory. In terms of connections, it has two USB2 ports on the front, another USB2 port on the bottom, and two USB3 ports on the back. On the wireless side, the system is compatible with the wireless Xbox 360 standard and has an RJ45 GbE Ethernet adapter.

It also comes with an HDMI-out and an optical audio out, as well as an HDMI-in. The HDMI-in is 100% pass-thru and supports 4K resolution and 7.1 Audio. Switching between Alpha and TV signals is supported via a controller without requiring a change in input on the TV itself. You can see the form factor and inputs in our video below.

One of the purported benefits of the Alienware Alpha is that users will have the option to boot into “console” mode. This mode is a software shell that sits on top of the OS and allows for controller-based access to your media as well as Steam Big Picture, the Steam experience designed for TVs and game controllers. It also automatically manages all software updates. (To be clear, the machine does allow for more traditional keyboard and mouse inputs, so you can still absolutely use it as you would any PC.) Our evaluation unit didn’t come with this software shell, so we can’t comment on the actual usability of it; we’ve been using the more traditional desktop mode.

To gauge the effectiveness of the base $549 model, we ran several graphics tests for four recent games – Assassin’s Creed IV and Watch Dogs on PS4, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor on Xbox One, and, to represent the previous generation, Batman Arkham Origins on Xbox 360. You can see the results of the graphics comparisons in the video below.

Each game was configured on the Alpha box using the settings that best replicated those on the comparative platform - for example, in Shadow of Mordor, we locked the framerate to 30 fps, which allowed for higher-quality textures and smoother gameplay. We ran tests with the framerate set to 24-62 FPS, resulting in a need for lower-resolution textures in order to prevent video lag. Other titles, such as Watch Dogs, did experience noticeable framerate dips even when running an optimized configuration (though Watch Dogs on PC is somewhat notorious for said issues on any hardware). Ultimately, though, when equalizing the graphics settings between each platform, the results were visually similar on both the Alienware Alpha and its console counterpart. If you want a full 60 fps experience, you'll obviously be sacrificing some of the quality of the image seen in the video above.

Of course, one of the obvious advantages Alienware is pushing for the Alienware Alpha is that it can be upgraded with new components. The base i3, 4GB model retails for $549 but Alpha users who want a little bit more can purchase an 8GB version of the Alpha for $699. They can go up to an i5 processor for $799, or splurge for the top of the line i7 model for $899. We have the parts to upgrade the box to the higher priced model and will be running more tests once the software shell is released.

True tinkerers will find other components they can upgrade as well. The system includes 2x DDR3 SoDIMM sockets that will support up to 16GB of RAM, as well as a wireless adapter that will accommodate an upgrade to a 2x2 802.11ac Dual Band and Bluetooth 4.0. On the hard drive side, the system has options for a 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB drives.

Perhaps more significantly for gamers who like to optimize their game playing, the nature of the Steam market means that game compatibility, modification, and resolution are all more flexible on the Alpha than on the first-party consoles. That goes for peripherals as well as software, so third party racing wheels, user mods, and 20-year-old games are all relatively in-bounds for the new system, at least when compared to the console development environment.

We’ll have more on the Alienware Alpha in the coming days, including a look at the software shell that will be included in the final retail version, as well as an exploration of the impact and ease of upgrades.